SEA ISLAND, Ga. – Redshirt junior Andres Echavarria carded a 1-under-par 69 Friday as the Florida men’s golf team opened the 2010 SEC Championship in a tie for second place.
The Gators carded a team score of even-par 280 and are tied with Auburn. The teams are just two strokes behind Arkansas, which totaled a 2-under-par 278.
“We had a nice start today,” Florida coach Buddy Alexander said. “We got some good play out of Andres which was nice to see. But overall, everyone was solid today. We’re in a good spot and we’ll play with Auburn and Arkansas tomorrow. This is still a wide-open affair. When you have as many teams as we do in the conference that are fairly even in talent, I wouldn’t expect a lot of separation. If the conditions continue, I think we’ll see a real close contest this weekend.”
Echavarria’s first-round score put him in a 10-way tie for fourth place. He began his round making bogeys on two of his first three holes on the par-70, 6,991-yard Seaside Course at the Sea Island Golf Club. Birdies on holes 4 and 8 and another bogey at No. 9 put him at one-over at the turn. Echavarria made birdies on two of his first three holes on the back nine and concluded his first 18 holes of play with six straight pars.
Senior Tyson Alexander and junior Bank Vongvanij carded first-round 70s to tie for 14th place. Alexander and Vongvanij each carded two bogeys and two birdies in their rounds. Making his first appearance in the postseason, freshman Phillip Choi opened with a one-over 71 to tie for 26th. Senior Tim McKenney is in a tie for 48th following a round of 75.
Arkansas is led by Dalton Owens, who shot a 3-under-par 67 and was tied for first place with Bryden Macpherson of Georgia. Trey DelGreco of Vanderbilt was a shot back in solo third place. Chasing Arkansas, Florida and Auburn are South Carolina and Mississippi State, which each totaled 282, a shot ahead of Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana State. Vanderbilt was at 284 in ninth place, six shots behind Arkansas, a testimony to the closeness of the field.
SEC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
At par-70, 6,991-yard Sea Island (Ga.) Golf Club (Seaside Course)
TEAM SCORES: 1. (41) Arkansas 278 (-2); 2. (tie) (8) Florida 280 (E) and (35) Auburn 280 (E); 4. (tie) (9) South Carolina 282 (+2) and Mississippi State 282 (+2); 6. (tie) (14) Georgia 283 (+3), (26) Tennessee 283 (+3) and (27) Louisiana State 283 (+3); 9. Vanderbilt 284 (+4); 10. (42) Mississippi 288 (+8); 11. Kentucky 296 (+16); 12. (21) Alabama 297 (+17).
TOP 25 (and ties) SCORES: 1. (tie) Bryden Macpherson (Georgia) 67 (-3) and Dalton Owens (Arkansas) 67 (-3); 3. Trey DelGreco (Vanderbilt) 68 (-2); 4. (tie) Andres Echavarria (Florida) 69 (-1), Billy Brozovich (Mississippi) 69 (-1), Wesley Bryan (South Carolina) 69 (-1), Austin Cook (Arkansas) 69 (-1), Hunter Hamrick (Alabama) 69 (-1), Lee Heston (Mississippi State) 69 (-1), Will McCurdy (Auburn) 69 (-1), Cole Moreland (Auburn) 69 (-1), Jonathan Randolph (Mississippi) 69 (-1) and Robin Wingardh (Tennessee) 69 (-1); 14. (tie) Tyson Alexander (Florida) 70 (E), Bank Vongvanij (Florida) 70 (E), George Bryan IV (South Carolina) 70 (E), Russell Henley (Georgia) 70 (E), Evan Hugall (Mississippi State) 70 (E), Hudson Johnson (Vanderbilt) 70 (E), David Lingmerth (Arkansas) 70 (E), Andrew Loupe (Louisiana State) 70 (E), John Peterson (Louisiana State) 70 (E), Garrick Porteous (Tennessee) 70 (E), Paul Woodbury (South Carolina) 70 (E) and David Zickler (Auburn ) 70 (E).
FLORIDA SCORES (280): T4. Andres Echavarria 69 (-1); T14. Tyson Alexander 70 (E) and Bank Vongvanij 70 (E); T26. Phillip Choi 71 (+1); T48. Tim McKenney 75 (+5).
RANKINGS
GOLFWEEK/SAGARIN
TEAM
1. Oklahoma State; 2. Augusta State; 3. Stanford; 4. Texas A&M; 5. Texas; 6. Washington; 7. UCLA; 8. Florida; 9. South Carolina; 10. Southern California;
11. Illinois; 12. UNLV; 13. Florida State; 14. Georgia; 15. Oregon; 16. Clemson; 17. Arizona State; 18 Texas Christian; 19. Texas Tech; 20. North Florida;
21. Alabama; 22. Georgia Tech; 23. Duke; 24. Virginia; 25. Oregon State; 26. Tennessee; 27. Louisiana State; 28. California; 29. San Diego; 30. San Diego State;
31. East Tennessee State; 32. North Carolina State; 33. Chattanooga; 34. Wake Forest; 35. Auburn; 36. Colorado State; 37. Middle Tennessee State; 38. Pepperdine; 39. Arizona; 40. Southern Methodist;
41. Arkansas; 42. Mississippi; 43. Iowa; 44. Charlotte; 45. New Mexico; 46. Southeastern Louisiana; 47. Fresno State; 48. North Carolina; 49. Kent State; 50. Michigan.
INDIVIDUALS
1. Russell Henley (Georgia); 2. Bud Cauley (Alabama); 3. Henrik Norlander (Augusta State); 4. Harris English (Georgia); 5. Diego Velasquez (Oregon State); 6. Dustin Garza (Wichita State); 7. Brooks Koepka (Florida State); 8. Dylan Frittelli (Texas); 9. Nick Taylor (Washington); 10. Patrick Reed (Augusta State);
11. David Chung (Stanford); 12. Jonathan Randolph (Mississippi); 13. Kevin Tway (Oklahoma State); 14. Brendan Gielow (Wake Forest); 15. Nils Floren (Texas Tech); 16. Cody Gribble (Texas); 17. Scott Langley (Illinois); 18. John Chin (UC Irvine); 19. Sean Dale (North Florida); 20. Andrea Pavan (Texas A&M);
21. Jesper Kennegard (Arizona State); 22. Corey Nagy (Charlotte); 23. Tyson Alexander (Florida); 24. Eugene Wong (Oregon); 25. J.T. Griffin (Georgia Tech); 26. Ben Kohles (Virginia); 27. Derek Ernst (UNLV); 28. Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State); 29. Morgan Hoffman (Oklahoma State); 30. Trent Whitekiller (Oklahoma State);
31. Richard Lee (Washington); 32. Philipp Westermann (Southeastern Louisiana); 33. Jordan Russell (Texas A&M); 34. Stephan Jaeger (Chattanooga); 35. Johan De Beer (Texas Christian); 36. Hunter Hamrick (Alabama); 37. James White (Georgia Tech); 38. Chris Ward (Texas Tech); 39. Kelly Kraft (Southern Methodist); 40. Pontius Widegren (UCLA);
41. Zack Fischer (UT Arlington); 42. Tim McKenney (Florida); 43. T.J. Vogel (Southern California); 44. Alex Shi Yup Kim (UCLA); 45. Daniel Miernicki (Oregon); 46. Ben Pisani (Minnesota); 47. Kevin Foley (Penn State); 48. Bobby Hudson (Texas); 49. Mitchell Krywulycz (Augusta State); 50. Scott Pinckney (Arizona State).
Other Florida: 107. Bank Vongvanij; 138. Phillip Choi; 153. Andres Echavarria; 382. Tyler McCumber.
GOLF WORLD/NIKE GOLF COACHES
TEAM
1. Oklahoma State; 2. Stanford; 3. Washington; 4. Texas A&M; 5. Oregon; 6. Texas; 7. Augusta State; 8. UCLA; 9. Arizona State; 10. Illinois;
11. UNLV; 12. Southern California; 13. Florida; 14. Florida State; 15. Alabama; 16. Georgia Tech; 17. South Carolina; 18. Virginia; 19. Clemson; 20. Texas Christian;
21. Georgia; 22. Texas Tech; 23. Louisiana State; 24. California; 25. North Florida; 26. Oregon State; 27. San Diego; 28. Auburn; 29. (tie) Arizona and Southeastern Louisiana;
31. Tennesee; 32. (tie) New Mexico and Chattanooga; 34. Duke; 35. (tie) Arkansas and Wake Forest; 37. (tie) Michigan and San Diego State; 39. Middle Tennessee State; 40. (tie) East Tennesee State and Southern Methodist.